Battle of the Bristol Channel
The Battle of the Bristol Channel was an aerial and naval engagement between the forces of the Welsh Republican Armed Forces and their Irish and Ulster allies against the Royal English Navy taking place in the Bristol Channel. After the start of the Battle of Newport, the Royal English Navy attempted to reinforce the city and break the siege by launching their entire Bristol Channel fleet from Bristol to The battle saw the destruction of most of the English Royal Navy forces in the Bristol Channel, giving the Welsh Republic and their allies uncontested control of the channel. Aerial Engagement The first action of the engagement was the launch of a force of English Royal Air Force aircraft, led by six DH-250 fighters to launch a surprise attack the on the Welsh Republic capital of Cardiff, as well as the air bases at St. Athan and Cardiff Airport. For this reason, four of the DH-250s were armed with bombs and rockets instead of the pre-war air-to-air missiles, which, in any case, were rare and not particularly reliable. The attack came at 0600 hours on June 30th, but was detected by the pre-war radar at St. Athan, one of only a handful of such devices in the entire British Isles. This gave the Welsh Republican Air Force to launch 8 DH-250 fighters. Three of the fighters were armed with pre-war Red Spear air-to-air missiles, with the rest carrying rockets or armed only with their guns. 10 piston-engine aircraft, mostly pre-war light planes, but also two restored Spitfires were also launched. Four bombers made from converted cargo planes and eight light aircraft were launched to attack Cardiff, particularly the ports. At 630 hours, six English DH-250 fighters neared Welsh shores, making a course for St. Athan and Cardiff Airport. The aircraft were met by the Welsh air forces, however, they had the sun at their backs, the English pilots were more difficult to locate, and the one that carried air-to-air missiles got off the first shots, with one missile malfunctioning and failing to ignite, falling into the sea southeast of the town of Barry, while the second functioned and scored a hit on Welsh fighter who, because of the blinding effect of the morning sun, did not see the missile incoming until it was too late to evade. The Welsh DH-250s that carried missile retaliated, firing six missiles. As was typical with the success rate of pre-war air-to-air weapons, only two missiles hit their targets, shooting down two English fighters. After this point, the engagement became a close-in dogfight. An English pilot shot down a second Welsh aircraft, but soon after, two Welsh pilots managed to maneuver around to the west of the English formation, getting a better angle on the English fighters and shooting down two in rapid succession. With three quarters of the formation lost, one English DH-250 pilot retreated and escaped, while a second made a "suicide run" on Cardiff Airport and managed to release their payload of two 500 pound bombs, one missing exploding next to the runway, while a second destroyed a pre-war parking garage. Neither did significant damage to the operation of the air base. The last DH-250 was intercepted soon after making its attack run, either shot down by a DH-250 or one of the a 20mm and 40mm AA guns at the airport. Meanwhile, the light aircraft and bombers, as well as two escorting DH-250s arrived ten minute later. Four DH-250s, as well as the ten piston-engine aircraft were dispatched to engage them. One of the DH-250s was shot down in the first pass, along with two of the bombers. In an aerial engagement that lasted 15 minutes, eight English aircraft were destroyed, including all of the makeshift bombers. Six light planes managed to escape in the chaos of the dogfight. Cardiff suffered light damage, including three bomb hits and a number of rocket impacts, as well as damage caused by three downed aircraft that crashed into the city. Air Attack on the English Fleet At 7:30 AM, the Welsh picket boats in the Bristol Channel between Newport and Bristol spotted English naval vessels leaving the Port of Bristol, including the pre-war frigate HMS Gloucester, pre-war missile boat HMS Royal Sovereign, and six pre-war cargo ships converted into heavy warships, along with numerous light vessels converted from pre-war fishing trawlers, tugboats, yachts, and speedboats. The pickets warned of the incoming attack and aircraft at St. Athan and Cardiff air bases were loaded with bombs and rockets as quickly as possible, before being launched against the attacking force. At the same time, the blockading vessels off Newport were alerted. At the same time, all available Welsh Republic and allied vessels in the channel or docked at Cardiff were ordered to sortie and intercept the incoming fleet. At around 7:50 AM, six DH-250s and eight piston-engined aircraft were launched to attack the incoming fleet. The aircraft met the English Fleet about 12 kilometers off the Newport, at which point the pre-war warships on both sides, the HMS Gloucester and Royal Sovereign on the English side and the LC Cardiff on the Welsh side had both fired the few pre-war anti-ship missiles they had on board, four from the Gloucester and Royal Sovereign and two from the Cardiff, and were moving to engage in a gunfire duel. The Welsh air forces split off into two flights to attack the pre-war vessels, as well as the five large container ships. The air attacks scored two rocket hits on the rear of the Gloucester, destroying a postwar-added 105mm howitzer placed on what was formerly the helicopter pad, as well as scoring hits on multiple of the converted container ships. The converted "roll-on roll" off cargo carrier HMS Divine Right suffered two 500 pound bomb hits and seven rocket hits. One of the bomb hits struck near the waterline, creating a large hole near the starboard bow and causing the top-heavy vessel to capsize and sink. Two other converted cargo ships also suffered damage from rocket and bomb hits, including the destruction of a 203mm howitzer mounted near the bow of the HMS Avon. The Welsh Republican Air force lost three light aircraft, one hit by one of two remaining pre-war Sea Bolt SAMs on board the Gloucester, and the other two to CIWS guns and lasers on the pre-war warships. Clash of the Pre-War Warships While it suffered light damage from the air attack, the HMS Gloucester and HMS Royal Sovereign continue to attack the LC Cardiff. Realizing the pre-war missile boat was outgunned, the Cardiff attempted distract the pre-war warships from the blockading Welsh fleet by firing on the vessels with its gun from near maximum range while maintaining distance and attempting to draw the English pre-war ships as far away as possible and distract them from the 20 light vessels of the Welsh screening fleet that had moved in to engage the pre-war warships. In spite of this, however, the two English pre-war ship managed to sink five Welsh light vessels with their 4.5-inch quick-firing gun, which had an intact pre-war fire control system that gave it an edge over the converted ships that consisted of most of the blockading fleet. At 8:10, the frigate LC Cymru and missile boat LC Swansea arrived from Cardiff, along with a pre-war missile boat from the Ulster Navy, US Bangor, the heavily refitted pre-war patrol craft of the New Irish Navy, LE Jack Lynch, five converted container ships, and 32 light craft. The Welsh pre-war ships all remaining pre-war anti-ship missiles aboard the vessels (and some of the last such weapons still remaining in usable condition in the British Isles) totally seven missiles, four on the Cymru and three on the Swansea. As typical of pre-war guided weapons, the guidance system was unreliable, and only two weapons scored hit, sinking the converted container ship HMS Revenge and heavily damaging the HMS Avon. After the initial barrage, the pre-war ships, the Cymru, Swansea, and Bangor opened up at a range of about six kilometers with their 4.5-inch and 76mm guns. The Jack Lynch held fire until about three kilometers distance as, while it was one of the last pre-war warships in the New Irish fleet, the original semi-automatic 76mm Oto Melara gun had been replaced in 2190 with a manually operated 105mm gun converted from a land-based howitzer, which had more available ammunition, but was less accurate without a fire control system and was slower firing as it was manually reloaded. Nonetheless, the Lynch could still rely on its speed, which was comparable to the pre-war vessels. The first salvo of three shells from the Allied ships, at distance of three kilometers all missed, as did the two shots from the Gloucester and Royal Sovereign. The first hit was scored by the LC Swansea, scoring a 76mm hit near the stern on the Gloucester. The Bangor scored a hit on the now-empty missile launcher of the Royal Sovereign with 30 second afterwards, followed by a hit from the Cymru's 4.5-inch gun on the bow of the Gloucester, disabling the 4.5-inch guns. This allowed all four vessels to move it close to the crippled English frigate, at which point the manually operated 105mm of the Jack Lynch began scoring hits. In short order, the Gloucester hit by four 76mm shells, two 4.5-inch, and another 105mm shell. These hits in rapid succession caused multiple hull breaches below the water line, causing the Gloucester to take on water and sink ten minutes later. With the Gloucester sunk, the LC Cardiff, which had escaped without any major damage, turned around to renew the attack on the Royal Sovereign, which suffered multiple shell hits and sunk five minutes after the Gloucester. In the engagement that lasted about 15 minutes, the Royal English Navy had lost both pre-war ships of the Bristol Channel fleet, giving the Welsh Republic and their allies in the Gaelic Alliance naval supremacy in the Bristol Channel and Irish Sea. The Allied ships suffered only light splinter damage and two casualties from near-misses. Two-Pronged Attack With the English pre-war warships sunk, the Allied pre-war vessels pressed the attack on the six remaining English converted container ships and from the west, while the light vessels and the converted cargo ships of the Newport blockading force, LC Bridgend, LC Brecon, and LC Pembroke attacked from the north, "crossing the "T" of the English fleet" and firing their whole broadside of 105mm, 155mm and 203mm artillery guns. The first English ship to fall was the HMS Avon, struck by artillery fire from both the west and north and quickly sank. A similar fate befell the HMS Bristol. Meanwhile, the allied pre-war boats engaged the English fleet, splitting their screen of 28 light vessels, which were quickly overrun by the Allied light fleet, including the Welsh pre-war light patrol craft LC Arthwr, LC Owain Glyndŵr, and LC Camber, whose turret-mounted 20mm autocannon proved highly effective against the light targets. The Allied light fleet outnumbered the English almost two to one and picked off the light vessels of the English, while about 20 managed to make an attack directly on the fleet, including six vessels of the New Irish Navy armed with an experimental new weapon- a simple torpedo designed as a copy of the late 19th century Whitehead Torpedo. These weapons had a range of only about 2 kilometers and were unguided, however, they proved effective when launched for small boats, and contributed to the sinking of two of the English converted cargo ships. By the time the five Welsh and Ulster converted container ships reached effective range of their artillery, only two heavily damaged English vessels remained, both of which were quickly sunk by concentrated gunfire. Category:Battles Category:Events